Maybe They Should Call It ‘Tallybook’

For the last few years I’ve relied on an outfit called Pitchengine, based in Lander, Wyoming, for news about goings-on out in the Cowboy State (in addition to a local newspaper out there to which I have an online subscription). Until now I’ve considered it sort of a community news aggregator, but yesterday they went social-media, almost just in time for my latest departure from Twitter.

So far I’m only following channels long since established for the news items, based in Lander, Jackson Hole, and Thermopolis, but as members can post items too, in the manner of Facebook and Twitter, there’s a distinct danger I may get to using it for socializing of a sort, with people either in or, like me, away from but interested in Wyoming.

A tally book, by the way, is a cowboy’s notepad used for keeping track of livestock and his activities during the workday. If someone ever starts up a general-purpose social network for cowboys and wannabes, Tallybook would be a good name for it — until Zuckerberg threatens to sue.

Also on the subject of Wyoming,the new Joe Pickett book releases one week from today on Google Books. I will probably have finished reading it before sundown that day.

Update, about two weeks later: Now there’s a banner on the Streams page saying they’ve ended support. Not sure exactly what it means but it sure sounds like somebody’s pulled the plug on an experiment.

‘Nother update, April 29: As of now the only account still posting to Pitchengine Streams is a Lander, Wyoming funeral home. I don’t know if their information team set that up automatically along with (probably) other social media outlets and just haven’t removed that line of code, or what.

‘Nother Other Update, May 5: Now Pitchengine Streams is not merely dead, but most sincerely dead. Oh, well.